Panel disappoints veterans

Though she was brought to tears reminiscing about her late brother on Monday, Rachel Bravo can't help but crack a smile when people offer her condolences over her loss.

"He was doing exactly what he loved. We should all be so lucky," Bravo said of her 21-year-old brother, Lance Cpl. Raul S. Bravo, a Marine who died in March when the Humvee he was riding in ran over a roadside bomb in Iraq.

Bravo was one of about 50 family members of war veterans and veterans themselves who attended a school naming committee meeting Monday night for the Clark County School District.

The veterans and their families hoped the committee would give a yet-to-open high school in the southwest Las Vegas Valley the name Veterans Memorial High School.

But many left the meeting disappointed after the committee decided the high school, which will open on Levi Avenue and Torrey Pines Drive in the fall of 2008, will be named Desert Oasis High School.

The district's policy allows traditional high schools to be named only for "the locality or region" a school is in, committee members said.

Ed Wingender, a 57-year-old Marine who served in Vietnam, said he was upset with the committee's decision.

"That's bureaucracy at its best," he said.

"I would say other stuff, but it would probably be pretty ugly," Wingender said.

Raul Bravo's mother, Joy Marsico, called the decision "baloney."

The committee took steps that could lead to a future high school being named in honor of war veterans.

The committee of six, which includes two members of the public, one district principal and three School Board members, makes recommendations and sends them to the board, which approves the names of the district's schools.

School Board members Terri Janison, Sheila Moulton and Mary Beth Scow sit on the committee. They indicated that they wanted to name the high school in dedication to veterans but that their hands were tied.

The committee voted to change the wording of the district's policy to indicate a high school can be named after "cultural" or "historical" events or groups.

The rewording of the policy has to be approved a second time by the committee in October before it can go to the School Board.

Committee members also voted Monday that they would try to change the language in the same policy that currently states that all of the district's vocational high schools will be named with a directional description of the school followed by the phrase "Career & Technical Academy."

The committee is expected to tackle that issue again in October.

School district lawyer Bill Hoffman said it would take about six weeks to two months before the School Board would approve a change in policy after the naming committee recommended the revision.

Moulton wanted to name a vocational school opening in 2008 in eastern Las Vegas the Veterans Memorial East Career & Technical Academy. But she was told by Hoffman that could not be done Monday because of how the district's policy is worded.

Moulton told the audience that although the crowd supported naming a high school in honor of veterans, people who might disagree with that idea were not being heard.

"As this is put out to the community, you will see others come forward from the other side," Moulton said.

Several veterans said they were concerned that a school honoring veterans would not be approved by the School Board for many years because the district is nearing the end of its school bond program and is under time constraints.

Under the program, three technical academies and one traditional high school have yet to be named. Those schools are slated to open by the 2009-10 school year.

One final hurdle committee members had to deal with is that students who will attend a yet-to-open high school participate with the regional administrator in naming the school, though district policy does not mention student involvement.

About 15 students recommended to the naming committee that the school opening next fall be named Desert Oasis High School.

Committee member Punam Mather, an MGM Mirage executive, said she did not want the students who favored Desert Oasis High School to feel cheated. She said students should have the chance to name a high school to honor veterans.

"I don't want to go with the assumption that our young people won't honor veterans," Mather said.